July 17: Caring for Our Sacred Earth

The Diocese of Monterey and Green Power will host a training event on July 17th, 2016 at Resurrection Church in Aptos called “Caring for our Sacred Earth”. The event will launch the Church’s climate campaign and teach parishioners how to form green power teams. It will be opened by Monterey Diocese Bishop Richard Garcia and keynoted by climate scientist Dr. Katie Hirschboeck of the University of Arizona.

Green Power, a project of the Romero Institute, is collaborating with the Monterey Catholic Diocese to green parishes and advocate for renewable energy policy. The Romero Institute is a faith-based law and policy center in Santa Cruz.

The campaign will promote energy efficient churches and explore rooftop solar for Catholic buildings. Green Power will also educate Catholic parishes about Community Choice Energy (CCE), a new way counties and cities in California can control their electricity supply. Under CCEs, communities aggregate multiple, often green electricity suppliers into a portfolio of providers. CCE’s are an alternative to the monopoly utility model. Green Power is an official ambassador of Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP), the consortium of county and city officials preparing the Monterey Bay region for community choice energy.